I started high school on 9.9.99

{Image borrowed from Commonwealth. I hope they don't mind!}

Ten years ago today, I started high school. I went to a funny high school, and I sometimes hated it. I hated the way all the teachers knew who I was, even if they'd never taught me (and they all knew that I shouted a lot, so they yelled at me a lot), and I hated the way all of my homework was hard all the time. I also hated the way you couldn't get away from someone, and how hard it was to make friends at first.

Even though I sometimes hated it, though, I'll always be glad I went there. It is rare in high school, I think, to have teacher who will meet with you individually every single week to talk about ideas or give you extra help. It is rare, I think, to be able to say that you learned as much in high school as you did in college. (For me, to be honest, maybe more. But that's 'cause I didn't try very hard in college.) The rarest thing of all, though, and the thing for which I am the most grateful, is the friends I made, once I finally did make friends. Many of my favorite people on the planet are people I met in high school, and I'm so lucky they're my friends. It's why I wanted to go to that funny school in the first place, and it's why I'm so glad I stayed.

Happy Commie-versary, Commies!

Eight Years Ago, I Went a Little Bit Crazy

Eight years ago today, I started high school. (The date was always easy to remember because I started 9th grade on 9/9/99). Now, of course high school is significant for everyone, but my high school was special. As in, it was weird.
Before I had even visited the school, my parents used to joke that it would be a perfect fit for me, because Commonwealth was where the weird kids went. On the first day of eighth grade, I walked into the school to get an application, and I immediately knew that they were right. I needed to go there.
One of the things that made Commonwealth special was that it was hard. Really hard. And we liked to talk about it a lot. Which of course made it more stressful. But it was also tiny, and really nerdy, and yes, most of the students were, in fact, weird. (I was still the weirdest, though. By a fair amount.)
The best part about Commonwealth, however, was the people. At Commonwealth, you formed friendships that were different from the friendships my college friends have with their high school classmates. Most of my best friends (with the exception of friends from the Sororitee, and certain other places) are still the people I went to high school with.


My friends and I sometimes talk, only half-jokingly, about being those crazy people thirty years later who are still obsessed with their high school. If, thirty years from now, we are still obsessed with Commonwealth, it will only be because we realize how lucky we were to go there, and to meet the people we did.